Frederick Lloyd and Big Sixes took an ambitious approach to the band's EP The Idles - the five songs on the EP soundtrack a dark and atmospheric 15 minute short film.

Charlie Costello of the band explains, “The idea was to create something which was beautiful and ambiguous. Something that would resonate differently to different people, in different situations. Where your interpretation of the film alters your own emotional context, every time you watch it. We also wanted to create something that was visually stunning."

A composer himself, Frederick shows his innate understanding of music in this project alongside his customary exquisite cinematography. And he can make it snow inside.

 

FREDERICK LLOYD:

"It’s great to finally get this out there in its entirety as this was always the way it was meant to be seen for me – it was both very challenging and rewarding to be able to do something in slightly longer form to the usual promo length.

"Part of the challenge was making each section connect to the other in a thematic and emotional way. It all had to tell the same singular story whilst also being representative of the lyrical content of the individual tracks. Luckily the music the guys have made flows beautifully together and as such creating one over-arching narrative that fit with each track was much easier.

"In fact, it continued to evolve even after shooting finished as I started finding visual links between each of the tracks during the editing stages, one main thing in particular being the lamp light passing over the mannequins and the moving lights on our leading lady in Heaven Sent. And it felt great that there were these visual motifs that linked and fit together perfectly that I hadn’t even planned for.

"The other challenge was physically filming the equivalent of 5 music videos in 2 days. It was pretty stressful and tiring but I was incredibly pleased with our results even if there were some things we missed out on getting due to time constraints. I worked very closely with my forever’s, DP Matt Vahey and Art Director Francis Fagan, to really give each video a different, contrasting look and feel, but still maintain an overall balance and flow within all the videos.

"As mentioned in the Heaven Sent video, I felt it important to do something a little ambigious and symbolic so each viewer can take away their own interpretation and ideas as to the nature of the video and what is actually going on. The personal, artistic and creative relationship Big Sixes have with their fans was a feeling I very much wanted to replicate. It’s a very internal, metaphorical film I guess, and whether any of what you see takes place in the physical world or not is left completely up to you!"